Tag: Financial Action Task Force

UAE central bank issues new anti-money laundering guidance for banks, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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The United Arab Emirates central bank has issued new guidelines to financial institutions on anti-money laundering practices, it said on Monday, the latest of a number of measures launched by the Gulf state to combat illicit financial flows.

Banks will be required to develop internal procedures and put in place indicators to identify suspicious transactions and report them to the central bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit, the bank said in a statement.

They will also need to regularly screen their databases and transactions against names on lists issued by the United Nations Security Council or by the UAE government before conducting deals or entering into a business relationship with individual and corporate clients.

They have one month from Tuesday to demonstrate compliance with the central bank’s requirements, the central bank said.

“The guidance aims to promote the understanding and effective implementation by licensed financial institutions of their statutory anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism obligations”, it said.

In February the UAE government created an Executive Office for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing and last month Dubai set up a money laundering court.

The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental anti-money laundering monitor, said last year that “fundamental and major improvements” were needed to avoid it placing the UAE on its “grey list” of countries under increased monitoring.

The country has emerged as one of the fastest-growing corporate tax havens, according to a study earlier this year by the Tax Justice Network, documenting countries that attract companies seeking to shrink their tax bills.



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EU to tighten rules on cryptoasset transfers, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Personal Finance

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Companies that transfer bitcoin or other cryptoassets must collect details of senders and recipients to help authorities crack down on dirty money, EU policymakers proposed on Tuesday in the latest efforts to tighten regulation of the sector.

The law proposed by the European Commission, the EU executive, would apply what is known as the travel rule to crypto transactions to make them traceable.

The rule, which is one of the recommendations of the inter-governmental watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), already applies to wire transfers.

“Today’s amendments will ensure full traceability of crypto-asset transfers, such as bitcoin, and will allow for prevention and detection of their possible use for money laundering or terrorism financing,” the Commission said in a statement.

A company handling cryptoassets for a customer must include the customer’s name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the person who will receive the cryptoassets.

The recipient’s service provider must also check if any of the required information is missing.

Providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets will also be prohibited, just as anonymous bank accounts are already banned under EU anti-money laundering rules.

“These proposals have been designed to find the right balance between addressing these threats and complying with international standards while not creating excessive regulatory burden on the industry,” the European Commission said.

“On the contrary, these proposals will help the EU crypto-asset industry develop, as it will benefit from an updated, harmonised legal framework across the EU.”

EU states and the European Parliament have the final say on the proposals, meaning it could take two years for them to become law.



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